Mccormick Hotel Puts On New Face

A major renovation is planned for the McCormick Center Hotel, which stands opposite McCormick Place at Lake Shore Drive and 23d Street. The 25-story hotel opened in 1972.

Horst D. Peterson, president of CSE Construction Co., says the contracting firm has begun the first phase of the project, which involves the hotel`s lobby, entrance, shopping areas, stairs and ramps. In Phase 2, black brick at the main entrance will be replaced by columns and precast concrete with marble insets. Phase 3, Peterson says, calls for remodeling the hotel`s restaurants over the next few years.

He puts the value of the contract at ``several million dollars`` and says it is the biggest his firm has received since he bought the company late last year from Palmer Group Ltd. CSE also is remodeling restaurants and other facilities in the Hilton at Hyde Park, and it has a contract for the interior of the 225 W. Wacker Building now under construction.

Brewer rolls out 1st barrels

Former Chicago policeman Ken Pavichevich, 38, will realize a two-year dream when he taps a barrel of his new Baderbrau beer Thursday night at a press gathering in the 21 East Hotel.

His Pavichevich Brewing Co., which built a brewery last winter in Elmhurst, is making the first deliveries this week to 28 customers. Pavichevich says they include 21 East, Chicago Hilton and Towers, Chicago Athletic Club, North Shore Hilton, Hamburger Hamlet, Eliot`s Nesst, Connie`s Pizza and Jamieson`s Tavern & Grill. The beer will be sold in draft at first. Pavichevich says he plans eventually to offer it in bottles.

The planned celebration was dampened last weekend, however, when Pavichevich flew to Germany for the funeral of Prince Ferdinand Heinrich Zu Ysenburg, who died of a heart attack at the age of 48. The prince, whose family has brewed beer for more than 420 years, was a small investor in and a director of the suburban brewing company. The firm`s stock is traded over-the- counter.

What`s an `occurrence?`

For those who wondered, we were part of a jury that heard lawyers and other witnesses wrestle with the word ``occurrence`` as a major issue in a five-week trial in U.S. District Court here. It is commonly defined as an event, happening or accident. But . . .

In the trial, Procter & Gamble Co. saw its experience with the ill-fated Rely tampon as a single and continuing occurrence that started in 1974, when it began to test-market the product. It pulled Rely off the market in September, 1980, after the first suits were filed by women charging that the product caused toxic shock syndrome. Eventually, nearly 900 suits were filed. Only four came to trial, and all but a few of the rest were settled out of court.

P&G sought to limit its self-insurance risk to $1 million for each of three policy years by convincing the jury that the Rely saga was one occurrence. Three insurers who provided umbrella coverage-Northbrook Excess & Surplus Insurance Co., Commercial Union Insurance Co. and First State Insurance Co.-claimed the cases were multiple occurrences, which would boost P&G`s liability to $10 million a year. Northbrook, now out of business, was a subsidiary of Allstate Insurance Co.

The jury voted 7-1 that Rely was a multiple occurrence. Judge James B. Moran accepted the decision, even though it was not unanimous. The rest of the trial concerned how much P&G should be reimbursed by the insurers for expenses stemming from the legal cases.

Fred Gordon, who publishes the investment newsletter Plain Talk Investor in Northbrook, suggests that the term ``program trading`` be rechristened

``pogrom trading,`` because it results in ``an organized massacre of the helpless`` investor.

BUSINESS BEAT: Employee-owned SMS Supply Co., Chicago, has just made its third acquisition in the last few months. The latest purchase involved Quaker Tool & Grinding Co., Villa Park, which provides services to sharpen and modify tools such as drills and milling cutters. SMS, formerly known as Screw Machine Supply Co., changed its name Feb. 1 to reflect the industrial supply firm`s diversification after it bought Illini Precision Corp., Villa Park, and Marathon Die and Mold Corp., Elk Grove Village.

- James W. Compton, president of the Chicago Urban League, is nominated to Commonwealth Edison Co.`s board of directors. Two directors, A. Dean Swift and Adm. Eugene P. Wilkinson, will retire at the annual meeting of shareholders April 19.

COMING AND GOING: Donald E. Spiegleman, who was a partner in a Denver law firm for 20 years, joined the Chicago-based real estate development firm of Miller-Klutznick-Davis-Gray Co. as executive vice president and general counsel. . . . J. Clarke Smith was promoted to executive vice president and chief financial officer of Sears Mortgage Corp.